Julie and Julia
“Julie and Julia” movie presents two different planning cultures using the example of the twenty-first century New York and the post-war Paris. As far as urban planning is concerned, both cities have similarities and differences alike. The differences in time, location and general approach to urban planning make each city unique and distinguished from the other, yet both New York and Paris are presented as people-oriented communities with a clear implementation of the neighborhood concept.
New York and Paris are multi-million cities. Close friendly ties the main female characters have in the movie emphasize the concept of social network in the vast urban environment. Skillfully designed places facilitating social engagement assist in urban survival, which is especially of great current interest both for newbies and for permanent residents of big cities. Interpersonal relationships irrespective of their complexity or delicacy combined with an apt urban planning comfort people in such big cities as New York and Paris. Although a big city supposes the presence of sufficient space and enough opportunities for urban planning, New York and Paris demonstrate how dense urban neighborhood may be more advantageous than abundance of open space.
Julie Powell and Julia Child live in big cities, yet they are not intimidated by “the thrill of a fast-paced life” (Bluestone, Stevenson and Williams 5). The movie demonstrates how close friendship serves as social network in the vast urban environment and adds the vibe of a quiet and cozy suburban life, whether American of French, to daily activities of a New-York blogger, Julie Powell and an extraordinary self-made chef, Julia Child.
According to Bluestone, Stevenson and Williams, “place matters” (1). Skillfully designed places facilitating social engagement particularly matter and assist in urban survival. While post-war Paris seems to incorporate more rendezvous points as compared with modern New York, these cities are not contestants. Quality outweighs quantity. Both Julia Child and Julie Powell enjoy going to groceries and choosing varieties of cheese or bakery. They meet people with common interests there – sellers and shopping assistants who can hardly be called friends, yet they share common passion to food and help in transforming big and crowded cities into small and cozy suburban-like communities where everybody knows each other. Julie Powell seldom goes to restaurants, while Julia Child and her husband prefer to celebrate holidays and commemorative dates in Parisian cafes and restaurants. Nevertheless, restaurants in both cities serve as examples of appropriate places for social engagement bringing people together over delicious fish in Paris or several varieties of cob salad in New York.
Interpersonal relationships in the movie perform a double function. First, they contribute to description and understanding of the main characters. Secondly, combination of interpersonal relationships, irrespective of their complexity or delicacy, with an apt urban planning comforts people in New York and Paris alike. In Paris, Julia Child attends the Le Cordon Bleu school where she finally realizes that her main passion in life is cooking. She meets Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle at a party. Simone and Louisette become her friends and co-authors of Julia’s lifework “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. Even the train station in “Julie and Julia” (although it is already Boston location instead of Paris) is shown as a meeting place where long-term pen friends may finally greet each other in person for the first time. A regular and frequently unnoticed urban location people usually disregard and try to pass by as soon as possible is transformed into a meaningful and invaluable component of urban planning. It may be concluded that even a big city may provide people with endless opportunities to meet soul mates or to find and pursue professional dreams and aspirations provided that proper urban planning cares for introduction of necessary spots for social interactions. Less suchlike places are shown in New York. Julie Powell mostly spends her free time in her kitchen, yet her visits to groceries and her returning back home packed with lots of packages full of ingredients for cooking create an invisible link between Julie’s homemade cooking and the external world making interior and exterior match in an ideal combination.
Big cities are supposed to offer sufficient space and enough opportunities for urban planning to make their residents feel comfortable and safe. At least, it is an ultimate goal of a good urban planning. Successful cities should incorporate “the bounteous offerings” with “the peace and tranquility” (Bluestone, Stevenson and Williams 5). New York and Paris as shown in “Julie and Julia” demonstrate how dense urban neighborhood may be more advantageous than abundance of open space. Small details of planning play the key role in the general picture. In Paris, everything is so close that visiting café smoothly merges into a visit to Shakespeare’s and Co. bookshop and ends up with a tasty dinner in a restaurant with classical French cuisine and heart-to-heart conversations. Dense urban neighborhood becomes a vivid advantage.
In New York, when Julie Powell and her husband move to a new flat in Queens, dense urban neighborhood makes its significant contribution to Julie’s decision on becoming a cooking blogger. She has a tiny kitchen and her flat is situated above some Indian cafeteria making her smell food she does not like. Julie wants to break free from her dense urban neighborhood that seems to suffocate her. In the end, she succeeds in blogging and writes a book – everything thanks to the new living conditions she was put it. Dense urban neighborhood expanded the boundaries of her thinking and released a creative writer. When the city works together with the person, the results may be both unexpected and outstanding.
In the context of rapid globalization and mixture of different cultures and lifestyles, it is difficult to come up with strict classification of planning and univocal division of it into patterns of urban and suburban planning. Karl Marx and Max Weber once called social stratification (Macionis and Parrillo 260) one of the key factors in external appearance of communities and peculiarities of their planning, among others. Yet, social stratification is no longer of greatest value and does not determine planning in full.
In “Julie and Julia”, the main characters, Julie Powell and Julia Child belong to different social classes, live in different neighborhood, not to mention they are from different epochs and spend most of their lives in different cities. Nevertheless, both New York and Paris are shown as people-oriented communities with a clear implementation of the neighborhood concept. They share attention to the presence of enough places of social interactions and well-measured density of urban environment. In “Julie and Julia”, New York and Paris exist beyond any kind of limitations and classifications. These cities provide their residents and guests with enough opportunities to lead a comfortable and cozy life. It is not the concept of a small community within a big city. It is the improved concept of a big modern city peppered with small communities available upon first request.
Works Cited
Bluestone, Barry, Stevenson, Mary Huff and Williams, Russell. The Urban Experience. Economics, Society and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Macionis, John. J and Parrillo, Vincent N. Cities and Urban Life. Sixth Edition.
